With Ben officially out of this game, and Sam Bradford out as well, both defenses will be in the spot light. In my opinion, this game will come down to who has the better defense, and who limit the mistakes on offense.

After last weeks loss, I said that I was very disappointing with the defensive showing, and some people agreed, others thought I was crazy. After all, Ben did end up committing four turnovers, often giving SF a short field to work with. Many said, only giving up 20 points against four turnovers was not that bad, and to a large degree, that's true.

However, I think the defensive game plan stunk given the circumstances. Everyone in the building knew Ben was hurt. The defense played off the receivers and allowed a 2nd rate QB to dink and dunk all the way to victory.

In this game, we can probably count on a more ball control offense. Hopefully, Arians doesn't try his usual 20 deep shots with Batch at QB (but you never know). If that's the case, then I'd expect a whole lot of run game and the short passing game. I think we should have seen more of that last week. However, I don't expect the offense to be overly successful. I think we can score between 10 - 20 points. The question is, how will the defense respond after last week. Will they force turnovers against a backup QB, will they play tight man-to-man and come after the backup. Or, will they play similar to how they played against Tyler Palko and Alex Smith. Will they allow the Rams offense to dink and dunk down the field without applying any pressure? They had no sacks against SF and hardly registered any pressure the whole game.

I don't know about the rest of Steeler Nation, but I'm tired of seeing this soft, 20 yards off the receivers, no pass rush defense. I wish we could play like we were playing the patriots every week. That game had some good results. There was pressure, there were sacks, I don't remember turnovers, but we won the game....convincingly. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. Let me know if you agree of if you think I'm still nuts! Thanks!

tanda10506

12-23-2011, 09:47 PM

I thought we were through with the 10 yard cushions after the pats game but it seems like we are going back to it. With our corners playing this well we should be playing more man coverage, at least with the #1 and #2 corners. That said, we've been beating people with our zone defense for years and it works well to when the cushions aren't given. The pass rush dwindled after Woodley got injured. Harrison has came in and had some sacks, I remember 3 in the Baltimore game, but the overall pass rush seemed to just dwindle. Usually a D lineman and Harrison will have a sack or two each, seems like with the exception of last week that we do get sacks, but overall the pressure is rarely there. I know it's not his job, but it would be nice to get some more pressure from Keisel. A playoff ready team that feels they should be the #1 seed and is out to prove it to everybody including themselves should dominate the rams, not necessarily with the offense and Batch, but the defense should just flat shut down a weak rams offense with a back up QB.

I've been really happy with the pass blocking, except last game, from the o line, but not having a run game at all sucks and is going to be a big problem. We should be able to run over the rams and at least be able to run on some teams. Generally when we play the ravens neither team runs well, but lately their run game has been great, way better than ours, and that leaves Ben and the passing game to try to make up for it. That's not good in the long run and it's definetly not good for the playoffs. Against other playoff teams like the pats, texans, and whoever wins the west, we should be able to establish a solid run game. Mendy is really good when he gets good blocking and Redman is quite a bit better on getting at least a few yards when there is no blocking whatsoever. With both of them the run game should be ok, the O line needs to step up the run game if we are going to win on the road in the playoffs.

Whodis

12-24-2011, 08:56 AM

Turnovers are big in any game and the 49er's live by it. I though Johnson gave up on his route on the 1st TO. Without beating a dead horse, the game plan in the second half sucked. You can't place an injured QB in the backfield with no protection. The sooner Arians realizes he's not Martz and this isn't the "greatest show on turf" the better.

I dont understand why the defense went back to soft coverage. I don't understand why? After the Pats game I thought we were back to Steeler defense. Obviously this defense doesn't lose games, but it doesn't win them either. What Im saying is that the Ravens defense will win games and without it they are a 2nd place team. Sacks and interceptions don't come easy for us and the lack of pressure is obvious.

With that said, I think it's time for the defense to pin their ears back and test the corners. If they could trust Willie Williams in single coverage I believe Gay and Ike can do it.

steelcity1974

12-24-2011, 09:29 AM

With Ben out I expect our D to get very aggressive with coverage and pressure to make sure the QB never gets comfortable. They have three solid backs so we can't afford to give up 6 yards on first down like we did v niners. We need to play D as if our O will only get 10 points. I expect a shut down D that records its second shutout of the year.

Kanata-Steeler

12-24-2011, 01:18 PM

that we shouldn't have WASTED Ben last week ?! -Lol.

stb_steeler

12-24-2011, 03:10 PM

With Ben out I expect our D to get very aggressive with coverage and pressure to make sure the QB never gets comfortable. They have three solid backs so we can't afford to give up 6 yards on first down like we did v niners. We need to play D as if our O will only get 10 points. I expect a shut down D that records its second shutout of the year.

Cant stop the first downs, D on field to long again..

Darkstorm05

12-24-2011, 03:27 PM

that we shouldn't have WASTED Ben last week ?! -Lol.

Looking like we have a winner.

dcsteel5804

12-24-2011, 04:20 PM

My bet is that if we had played Batch he wouldn't have turned it over four times

Kanata-Steeler

12-24-2011, 04:31 PM

My bet is that if we had played Batch he wouldn't have turned it over four times
then again, I highly doubt that, unless of course Batch was as physically crippled as Ben was,
but then again, you can go right ahead and dream-on puppy, dream-on.

tanda10506

12-24-2011, 04:59 PM

then again, I highly doubt that, unless of course Batch was as physically crippled as Ben was,
but then again, you can go right ahead and dream-on puppy, dream-on.

what the hell are you talking about...:rofl:

TRH

12-24-2011, 06:01 PM

Don't get too excited w/Batch-a-mania here....

Don't get me wrong, i'm satisfied w/the way Batch played......but that said....this Rams team was BEYOND awful.....easily, by far, the worst "team" i've seen in a looooooooong time. We probably could've played William Gay at QB today and got away with a shutout.